Water: Opportunities Exist With Forgotten Commodity

Nicholas Pardini submits:For those living in developed nations, water is not often thought of as scarce. However in several countries such as China, India, Brazil and most of the frontier markets in the Middle East and Africa, water shortages are a severe problem. The ocean may cover two-thirds of the world's surface, but only 1% of the world's water supply can be used as either drinking water or irrigation. Population growth in China, India and Africa has strained water supplies to break-point levels. Over 31 countries have some form of water stress, and 25 more are expected to join these ranks by 2030. In addition to the strains of population growth, pollution of major waterways has eliminated what historically were reliable sources of drinking water. In China, water pollution in the Yangtze and Huang He rivers has been damaging enough to kill the Chinese river dolphin and create a layer of aerosolsComplete Story »

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BEIJING — Chinese conservationists claim to have captured a fleeting glimpse of a rare river dolphin that was declared extinct more than a decade ago.
A group of amateur marine life researchers say the white-grey creature leapt out of the waters of the Yangtze in front of them.
“I saw most of the body, and the second time around I saw its mouth and head,” Song Qi, their leader, said after the apparent sighting. The team, all volunteers, had been scouring an 800-kilometre stretch of the river for months.

Water shortages are hardly unusual in the developing world. Consider China, which holds 7 percent of the world’s water resources but uses 16 percent of the planet’s water. But in India, the problem is even worse. The country contains about 18 percent of the world’s population but only 3 percent of the planet’s fresh water.

NEW DELHI: India ranks third on the US Green Building Council's annual ranking of the top 10 countries for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certified buildings. LEED is a widely used green building rating system. The top 10 list highlights countries outside of the US that are making significant strides in sustainable building design, construction and transformation, illustrating the ever-growing international demand for LEED green buildings.

New Delhi (AFP) - India will urge rich nations to deliver "climate justice" for developing countries at a major environmental conference in Paris later this month, the environment minister has said in an interview with AFP.

Beijing (AFP) - The wild Chinese sturgeon is at risk of extinction, state media reported, after none of the rare fish were detected reproducing naturally in the polluted and crowded Yangtze river last year.

Shanghai's rivers are in hot water for the second time this year after hundreds of kilos of dead fish were found rotting in one of the mega-city's waterways. Just weeks after over 16,000 putrefying pigs were pulled from Shanghai's Huangpu river, more than 250kg [550 lbs] of dead carp had to be retrieved from a river in the city's Songjiang district.

China's leading environmental watchdog has refused to disclose the results of a major national soil pollution study on grounds of state secrecy, according to a lawyer who requested the report's disclosure.